Alrighty then people, let's get down to business! *cracks knuckles* This was like my best Christmas EVER! I got from Grandma's:
$40 gift card for Amazon
$40 in paper money
$10 Barnes & Noble gift card
Soul Eater Book 17
A necklace and earrings.
I got (On X-mas):
Hellsing book 1, 2, & 3
Wizard101 membership
Which was converted on the 26 into:
$40 gift card for Amazon
Hellsing Books 4, 5, 6, 7, & 8.
Drifters (new manga I'm reading by the same author as Hellsing) 1 & 2
So yeah, I am HAPPY with my Christmas haul. And wait; there is something else...which is the best of all. Ladies and gentlemen of the court, I HAVE GOTTEN A BRAND NEW LAPTOP! No lie! It's my first ever, and I am currently typing on it for this chapter. The software is a bit newer than our old family computer, so I'm still getting used to it. *gingerly touches computer, then yeeps and jumps back* Yeesh, I'm listening/watching an episode of Castle (crime show about a writer who follows a cop around) and it is so creepy! I actually turned on the light! I NEVER do that! But yeah, anyway, on with the show.
December 27, 2013.
Darkness, evil, and inhumanity are all really a matter of perspective. A hare with think a hawk evil, a hawk will think an eagle evil, and an eagle will think a wolf evil. It is merely a matter of opposition. Humans are all opposing of each other, so therefore they are evil to other humans. "I am not the same as you" is the sole motivation for any and all atrocities committed in this mortal world.
-A
Kage's POV:
So then…after lord creeps-a-lot left me to my own devices, I began thinking. Two things were immediately clear.
One, I was in deep trouble.
Two, I was REALLY in deep trouble.
I had never before in my life been so thoroughly trapped by an enemy…not even when Jack had sealed me in the spell with the Pumpkin King. Then at least, I wasn't even truly aware. Now everything was depressingly real, including the ever helpful though of: I'm so screwed…I sighed, leaning back in my chair. "Damnit all to hell…stupid bar…stupid chloroform… stupid Arro with his stupid clever spells…stupid-" I began monologuing, scooting the chair back as I kicked at the floor. Maybe if I got myself out of this pentacle inlay…nope. I let the chair fall back again with a sigh as I cleared the mosaic, not even a flutter of my former power returning to me. Well, there was a reason why we trained to perform just in case our powers were either lost or useless, and hey, I was pretty much in that scenario. Badabing badaboom.
I wiggled my fingers, getting ready to pick the lock on my cuffs…only to find it wasn't there. There was no nice, convenient, normal lock that an ordinary kidnapper would generously use; Arro had to be sneaker than that. The cuffs were just two, perfectly normal, shiny bracelets made of thick metal that held in all magical and otherwise power, and kept me from screaming out of there like a banshee out of a farmhouse. Probably sealed with magic. In which case, I was in essence…helpless. Not a good feeling. I sighed, squirming a little as I continued to try and at least put up a token resistance. I knew what game he was playing, Queenie had played it often on me and many other people, sometimes fatally. (Although obviously not to me).
The victim is spoken to, usually via boasting, using veiled threats to nudge them into a fearful and slightly wary state of mind. Leave area. Watch the victim as they struggle, and slowly realize they cannot escape their bonds/captor. Wait until a state of resignation and fear sets in, then act. Dominate. Bully. Cow. Pound them into submission. Torture them. Then wait again and let them heal just a bit. Watch as they muse over their fate and start to fear, truly fear, their oppressor. Repeat until the victim is clearly under your control. Then toy with them at your leisure. Torture them brutally for three days then leave them alone for a month. Bully them every other day for a week and then vanish. Keep them uncertain and guessing, always guessing, never knowing when you might show up and bring more pain. It was the fastest and most easy way to break a person's mind and spirit, but I smirked, raising my head defiantly. This isn't going to work for you "Arro". I invented mental terrorism. I thought with a chuckle, grinning defiantly at where I imagined his smug, insane face to be.
That done, I began musing. For one thing, it unnerved me slightly that it was so very easy for this creep to catch me, both unawares and literally. It was also unnerving that I was faced with an enemy of unknown powers and intent, one who also seemed to be interested in Nightstalker and who also probably had experience dealing with us, as classified with how very thorough the spell on me was. I bit my lip, trying to think. He was easily able to hide-no, it was a camouflage. There's no way I wouldn't even have noticed a Soul Protect, no matter how expert he is. The discoloration would've tipped me off instantly. I thought, rubbing a finger against one of the carved sigils on my cuffs absently. Soul Protects, no matter how competent, always left a sheen around the soul they were concealing. For instance, for my orange soul, it would leave a film of light red. For a normal human soul, it would change it to purple. The actual spell itself, if viewed from a significantly powerful pair of eyes, basically surrounded the creature or soul in a maroon-purplish bubble, like a bruise, hiding it from sight, but also exposing itself as something wanting to hide. It was like trying to conceal yourself under a blanket; you yourself are hidden from view, but what you are hiding under incriminates you.
It merely meant that the more skilled you were, if you adapted it to a certain form, the red-purple tinge would only lighten, become less prominent. Arro's soul had been a clear, ice blue, not tinged with even the faintest pink, much less red. He had mostly likely used a camouflage, like we ourselves used, which instead of covering the soul, warped it. For instance, I was partially meister, and partially weapon, so I bent the output my soul was giving, like placing shards of mirror in a maze to reflect and confuse, thus making it seem as if I was only meister and weapon, not all the rest. The meister trying to read my soul would be rapidly bounced about these shards, giving the illusion of a whole, unsuspect soul. So far in the several hundred years we had gone about our existence, it had held. But on to more pressing matters. Arro was able to catch me off my guard, sneak past my senses, and hold me captive in a way I was certainly beginning to dislike. This was not a novice I was dealing with, and before I knew it, still spinning uneasy conclusions, I was out for the count.
Hazel's POV:
I woke up the next morning, stumbling down the hallway to see DK calmly flipping pancakes, his face turned away from me. "Heads up squirt." I managed to blearily look up, then squeaked and caught the plate flying towards my face, flinching as there was a slapping sound and tilting it to see a fluffy brown pancake placed in the exact center. I shuffled to the table, sitting down and wishing silently they didn't make so much noise in the mornings. A large glass of orange juice slammed down next to my plate, a bottle of syrup and some butter being tossed beside me. Something clicking within my sluggish, tired brain, I looked up, seeing my partner practically throw himself into the chair opposite me and chomp –not bite, not munch, but chomp– savagely down on a glowing blue soul. "Wassa wrong with you?" I slurred, and he jerked his head up, then scowled and sourly gulped another soul down. "Kage vanished trying to find information last night. Akuma tried calling on a phone, telepathically, through their link, looking for her soul, talking through the informants we have, and it all came up dead. He;s still out looking for her, but it's like she was caught by a ghost." he growled, and I spit out my orange juice as I started to take a gulp, the spray soaking his face and the soul about to be devoured in his hand.
He gave me a withering look, a shadow whisking my napkin away as he caught it and grumpily wiped his face off as I stared at him, stunned. "What!? She was looking for who captured us?! What happened!? Is she gonna be okay?!" I stammered, and he waited for the barrage of words to stop, chewing the next soul thoughtfully before swallowing it with a sigh. "Yes, she was looking for the person or people that altered you and your friends. I mean, you honestly expect us that they kept you for three years, children from almost the same town, and you all suddenly turn out to have advanced capabilities? Artillery weapons are rarer than you might expect." he explained coolly, picking lazily at his black nails. "The informant she asked said that she was sitting alone and the drink she had was from a common source, the barkeep someone she personally trusted. Once our woman left, Kage was seen with a young man with black hair, and after that it's like nobody saw anything. Someone said a barfight was going on and most people were watching it instead of the exits. But having black hair and being a guy is a rather common condition, one I myself am a victim of. And I know that unless the creep had several dozen Great Old Ones in his pockets, there was no way he could've taken Kage by force. Subterfuge was obviously used." he explained, tilting a mug of something I was hesitant to identify down his throat. It smelled unpleasantly of blood.
"And as for her being okay, this is Kage we're talking about. This guy gets kudos for managing to catch her unawares once and hiding her somewhere, but the day Kage is completely and utterly beaten and/or gotten one over on, I swear I will bloody kiss you." he chuckled, and I squeaked and blushed, covering my mouth with my hands. He smirked at me. "Of course, that's less likely than the sun coming up black and in the west. You aren't gonna need demon-centric pepper spray anytime soon." he added mischievously, and I glared at him, covering my smile with my glass of orange juice. "I hate you." I reminded him, and he lazily stuck out his tongue as my eyes widened, the appendage long and pointy and most certainly too wriggly for a human as he grinned, snaking it at me as I squealed and jerked back, laughing as he withdrew it back into his mouth. "How…how does that even fit?" I managed to squeak, and he shrugged, putting his hands behind his head. "How the hell should I know? It feels normal when I eat, and when I walk around. It just gets really long once it's out of my mouth. Demon thing." he muttered with a little shrug, grinning at me as he opened his eyes again. "And it's only a tongue ya scaredycat." I replied by sagely dumping my orange juice on his head and marching back to my room, where it was safe from tongue-wiggling demonic jerks.
Kage's POV:
"Ngh…hnt!" I flinched away from the annoyingly bright light next to my eye, and it was turned off as Arro moved away, his thin lips set in a cruel smile. "Rise and gloom Kage. I have a present for you." he said smugly, and the corner of my lips twitched up. "Let me guess that it isn't a key to the cuffs and a map to the exit?" I asked mockingly, and he shook his head, still smirking cruelly. I nodded with a sigh, looking around. This new room was also in a stunning, boring ocean blue, tiles instead of wood or carpeting, the ropes and chair gone but my lovely cuffs still there, clipped onto some sort of hanging mechanism with an escape-proof padlock on it. My feet were hanging inches above the ground, unrestricted, a similar, but not quite the same pentagram below them. Arro broke me from my thoughts with a shrill whistle, and I narrowed my eyes at the invitingly open door across the room, directly in front of me.
This didn't look good.
I raised an eyebrow as a sickly, pale Kishin wobbled into the room, Arro smirking now like a feral demon as it came to a halt by his feet. "A pet?" I asked dully, knowing what was going to come next and humoring the sociopath as he chuckled, shaking his head as he raised a finger, pointing it to me. "Feed." he said simply, and the creature snuffled once, looking to me and cocking its head. " 'Sup kid." I said, flicking one of my bound hands in a friendly gesture as it crawled closer, still with its head cocked. Suddenly it seemed to make a decision, and my eyes widened as the tiny, pale creature swelled, becoming lanky and dark-skinned as it launched forward, the teeth sinking deep into my throat as claws met my legs, scrabbling at them viciously as the Kishin's clawed hands wrapped around my shoulderblades, piercing the skin there and drawing blood as I was crushed against the bone-hard chest, gargling a little as my own blood gushed into my mouth from the punctured lungs.
Suddenly the creature keened, falling back as I smirked, blood pooling at my feet as it dripped down my body, one feral red eye taken by the spike of Black Blood attached to my throat, one that slowly wavered and dripped back down to the ground. The Kishin screeched and charged, only to gargle, spikes of Black Blood puncturing its heart, lungs, and bowels, exploding into ribbons of darkness that wrapped around a floating, glowing red soul, one I hungrily gazed at, but knew better than to try and grab for it. The black spikes quickly relaxed back into pools of blood, and Arro slowly approached. "What's the point of that? You knew nothing so mediocre as a Kishin would be able to even hurt ME." I said simply as he neared, and he smirked icily. "The funny thing about that is-"
Gsk!
He stopped dead, a spike of blackness stretching from the pool of blood up throat his chest, the tip passing through his clothes to poke out his back, impaling his heart. My face was set, a small trickle of blood slipping down my chin to plip on the stained blue tiles. His eyes were vacant, his mouth open slightly, his weight hanging on the spike supporting his corpse. My eyes widened in surprise, then narrowed as his slack mouth tightened, smirking, and his lolling head swung back up as his dangling limbs regained control. "Are you quite done?" he asked with a smug smile, and in answer I smirked back, withdrawing the Black Blood as he dusted himself off. "As I was saying before you interrupted me, the funny thing about your statement was; I have no intention of killing you. None at all. I want you alive." he said with another smirk, brushing my brand with one finger. I spat in his face, his eyes narrowing just a bit, then unfocusing, going up a little as his mouth went slack a little, going unanimated once more.
As I waited, his eyes focused again, and he smirked again, shaking his head. "Spitting the Blood on me and then using it to punch through my brain. You are even more incredibly dogged than I expected. Word of advice?" He leaned in close, and I absently realized I couldn't feel his breath on my cheek, although his face was inches from mine. "I can't die. No matter how many times you kill me, I can't die. I want you to remember that for further consideration." he said ominously, patting my head a few times and then turning away, walking out the door. I smirked after him, my lips bloody and my body slowly healing, bones reknitting and muscles combining as the slow blood flow gradually halted. "Wrong buddy…you can die. You just…don't stay dead. In which case…when the time comes…I'm going to have to keep killing you until you stay dead." I panted softly, chuckling to myself as I swilled the bitter liquid in my mouth around and spat it out, ignoring the small worry in my mind.
What kind of creature doesn't even bleed when I puncture his chest? I didn't see a speck on his clothes or his face after I sent the spike through his brain…
Uh…that's really all from me. Happy Holidays and everything, hope you got the same cool sort of stuff I did. Review Request Rcomment Auf Wedersien!
8.39 PM USA Central Time